1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a switching cabinet with a rack assembled from horizontal and vertical frame sections, in which the switching cabinet body enclosed by the rack can be covered with a cabinet door and side walls, the cabinet door being hinged to one of the vertical frame sections and is pivotal about a vertical pivot axis.
2. Description of Prior Art
This type of switching cabinet is known from German Patent Reference DE 41 03 785 C2.
An interior space of such switching cabinets is equipped with electrical switching units. During operating time the electrical switching units must be maintained and replaced when necessary. The switching cabinets are often tightly occupied so that the accessibility to individual units is highly limited.
It is one object of this invention to provide a switching cabinet of the type mentioned at the outset in which the accessibility to the switching cabinet interior is improved in simple fashion.
The object of this invention is achieved with at least one of the side walls fixedly mounted on the rack or hinged to pivot around a vertical axis.
When accessibility to the switching cabinet interior is improved, the conventional side wall can be connected to pivot on the rack instead of using a rigid connection. In this type of switching cabinet, the switching cabinet interior is then accessible both through the cabinet door and through the side wall. The other side walls could naturally also be hinged so that the interior of the switching cabinet is accessible on all sides.
If the side wall has fastening mounts to which the hinges or side wall supports are applied, which are connected to the corresponding vertical frame section, then no additional measures need be taken to mount the hinges on an existing side wall.
As one advantage, the side wall of the switching cabinet is hinged to the rack and has fastening mounts on the closure side opposite the hinge side, on which the side wall can be locked to ordinary side wall supports in the closed state.
The side wall can be easily locked by designing the fastening mounts as openings through which fastening screws can be passed and screwed into threaded mounts of the side wall supports.
According to one preferred embodiment of this invention the hinged side wall has a continuous seal on an inside facing the switching cabinet interior and the hinge is screwed to the side wall outside of the sealing area enclosed by the seal. Because the fact that the hinges are arranged outside of the sealing area, complicated measures to seal the hinge connection sites become unnecessary.
In a switching cabinet according to this invention the hinges of a side wall can keep the vertical pivot axis in front of the outward facing front side of the side wall in order to permit an opening angle of 180.degree.. Good accessibility to the switching cabinet interior is thus possible.
However, it is also possible for the hinges of a side wall to be arranged and recessed relative to the front side formed by the side wall, to permit an opening angle of up to 90.degree.. The recessed hinge is then visually inconspicuous. For facilitated installation of the hinge the vertical frame sections can have an external mount for hinges of the side wall running in the longitudinal direction of the section and directed toward the outside of the rack, which is bounded by two longitudinally directed side support sections on which the hinges are aligned with centering surfaces. The hinges can be aligned on the support sections.